Joint Astrophysics Colloquium

From the first galaxies to water on Europa, how the Hubble Space Telescope informs a modified Drake Equation and lays the foundations for the James Webb Space Telescope and the search for life

Matt Mountain

Space Telescope Science Institute

In its 24 years of operations, the Hubble Space Telescope has been transforming our view of the Universe. HST is today in one of its most productive phases, and this talk will review some recent results from HST, and how a subset of these, in combination with NASA's Kepler mission can be used to quantify key components of a modified Drake Equation. Specifically we will look how this can be further constrained with the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, which would have the potential to determine whether there are habitable worlds capable of supporting life. This lays the foundations for space missions beyond JWST that could determine within two decades whether we are alone in the Universe.